They opened the stage playing “Wonderful Day”, followed with 가능성 (Possibility), reminding me of my first Boohwal concert ever last March. It was immediately continued with 너뿐이야 , keeping the energetic flow.

The next in line was some common Christmas songs~~ and a trot song from Jemin Oppa ^^, Jingle Bell, and the solo performances: bass-solo by Jae-Hyuck Oppa, continued with Tae-Won Oppa playing and singing “무정블루스”, and drum solo by Jemin Oppa ^^

Leader and Guitarist Kim Tae-Won. He played “무정 Blues” for solo performance.

Chae Jemin, played a four-minutes long solo drum~ ^^

Seo Jae-Hyuck, of course, plays solo bass~ awesome 🙂

Jeong Dongha, he went down the stage and threw candy to the audience several times.

I made some videos of solo performances, coz it’s something that you can only get in live concerts. Originally, I meant to upload it and share it here, but due to incidents where video I uploaded was re-uploaded by other people claiming it as if it was theirs, I will keep it for personal collection only. Thanks to these culprits, some pictures I took last night is all I could present to you~

Please note that I don’t mind if you quote or use the information, videos, pictures, and anything else I uploaded here, but please don’t forget to credit this site. I am working on the homepage for Boohwal, but I’m not a fool to let others take credit on my work.

Somebody uploaded this video on youtube for “Never Ending Story”, it’s really amazing to see it from that angle. My seat was the fourth line from the stage, so all I could hear was basically Boohwal’s music alone. Didn’t realize it was practically all guests singing the chorus part for Never Ending Story~ ^^

That’s all for this post, Boohwal still has another concert left to close the year in Gyeongju, which I’m afraid I can’t make. But if you’re in Korea for new year, totally recommend the Gyeongju concert!! 🙂

The closing stage below, Boohwal and two session musicians playing the second guitar and the piano.

Merry Christmas for all of you who celebrate it. Happy holiday and happy new year!

Despite Drummer Chae Jemin (6th album, 1998), Bassist Seo Jae-Hyuck (7th album, 2000), and Vocalist Jeong Dongha (10th album 2005) only joined Boohwal in the middle (unlike the Leader/Guitarist Kim Tae-Won), they know very well about the glory and the pain Boohwal have went through.

Originally started as the band “The End” where Kim Jong-Seo was the vocalist, Lee Seung-Cheol took his place in the following year as the band’s name was changed to “Boohwal” (Born Again). Until now, Kim Tae-Won have been all by himself keeping Boohwal going despite 9 vocals, 4 drummers, and 3 bassists have come and go.

“26년 중 4분의 3이 위기였어요. 절망의 순간까지 갔다가도 마지막 끈을 놓지 않고 음악을 하다 보니 여기까지 왔네요.”

“In 26 years, 3/4 of the time was spent in ‘crisis’. Up until the last moment, not once have I ever let go. I just keep working on my music, and here we are now.”

They were doing great after the release of the first album featuring “Heeya”, but then Lee Seung-Cheol decided to leave the band, followed with an incident involving Kim Tae-Won, the death of Kim Jae-Gi, and so many other crisis…

‘When I fell into an endless despair, music brings me back to live. And then I set another aim for myself,” reminisce Kim Tae-Won. The “dramatic” story of Boohwal is being put into a special drama by KBS 2 TV station with the title “Rock Rock Rock.”

“I’d never imagine things would go like this before last year. According to the writer of the drama, the story of Boohwal had been funny yet sad, which were among the reasons they wanted to make our story into a drama. We met the writer for four months and told our story in all honesty.”

The dramatic story of Boohwal will also be showned on stage. Boohwal is holding the Seoul concert on this coming December 24th and 25th in Grand Hilton Hotel Convention Center, and Gyeongju concert on December 31st in Gyeongju Hotel Hyundai Convention Hall under the title “Never Ending Drama.”

“‘Reminiscene III’ was more known under the title ‘The Last Concert’. A severe incident motivated me into writing ‘Never Ending Story’. Kim Jae-Gi passed away after recording only the first part of ‘White and Black Movie’ and I tried to imitate his voice and finished the recording. We try to build a drama for this concert involving not only the songs I mentioned but also a lot of other unfortunate songs..”

Their schedule for 2011 has beem well-planned. Having estabished “Boohwal Music Academy” this past September in Incheon, and Kim Tae-Won having taken the mentor role in an MBC music program “The Great Birth”, they say they would like to assist their juniors in music. Boohwal plans another concert in LA, USA, on April next year, saying that they want to bring Korea’s rock music to the international stage – including Japan. They’re also preparing their 13th album, in which a special song of 13 minutes-long will also be inserted.